Maison de Famille

I was recently given a lovely housewarming gift – a wooden plaque with Maison de Famille painted on it. I’ve placed it at the entrance of our new house. Our family house. I still can’t quite believe it….all grown up, married, two kids and a proper house with a big garden for the little tikes to play in.

It’s been a busy few months for us all with a lot of changes. Not only have we moved house, but the babies have grown so much. They now have teeth…which means we have started brushing said teeth. No easy task. I get about two seconds of brushing done before the brush is grabbed and used as a chew toy. And god forbid you try and take it back before they’re done with it!!!!! They are in their high chairs now which makes feeding time a lot easier. I can feed them both at the same time, simples!! Unless one of them is having a strop….which they take it in turns to do. I should have known if anything was going to make life easier it wouldn’t last for long!!!!

What’s yours is mine, and what’s mine is mine

It is pretty wonderful though watching them learn new things. Eating finger foods is my favourite so far. They like their afternoon snacks. Harry always leans over and trys to steal Archie’s food, especially his toast. They’ve started to crawl and can cover a fair distance in seconds!! Putting up a playpen was a priority in the new house. It’s our saviour. The noisy toys are out now too. Oh my. Thank you V Tech (and grandparents!!). We spend all day singing along to the poxy things….3,2,1, is everyone on board? Take off. Where’s the cat? (I know, a plane with cats as passengers?!?). Welcome to our learning farm, we have lots show you-oo! Ring a ling – thanks for calling! The little red phone is now their weapon of choice. They’re obsessed with it. They hit each other with it. They hit me with it. They hit the bars of the playpen with it like prisoners in old westerns.

They are in new beds too, cotbeds. These beds are huge compared to the little cots they went into when they came home. Back then they seemed so tiny in those. Now they can crawl around their new bed, do back rolls, front rolls, sleep horizontally if they choose to (which they do of course. Face planted into the mattress, giving us sleepless nights!!!).

We are now planning their first birthday party in September. Can’t quite believe it’s nearing that time already. We were reminiscing the other night (with wine, obviously), both of us getting misty eyed at what it was like when the babies first came home from the hospital. Getting through 24 hours was a well deserved reason to celebrate! I used to see daylight as a reward….I’ve made it through another night!!! Like somehow it was easier during the day?!?! Then being able to sleep for more than 3 hours. I remember celebrating when the first night feed began after midnight!!!! And when you were down to just one overnighter…..it was like being on holiday! And the first time you slept all night. Ah….good times.

For my 40th birthday, I wanted my babies to smile. Which I convinced myself they did (although now they smile all the time I think it was probably wind). They laugh, make silly noises, scream at a hilariously high pitch all the time. Harry commando crawls everywhere, Archie is watching and learning intently, ready to follow soon. We have already earmarked their personality types. We have used the ‘flat pack’ furniture analogy and decided that Harry takes after his dad. His flat pack arrives, he rips open the box and starts banging everything together, hoping it stays up and wondering why there are 8 screws and two pieces of wood left over. Archie takes after me. He makes himself a cup of tea, reads the instructions and pieces everything together in a calm and orderly manner, allowing himself to feel a small amount of smugness at his masterpiece. It will be interesting in the years ahead to see if we are right!!

To my friends who are pregnant now or have tiny babies, please, please, please enjoy these days, weeks and months. Yes they are so challenging, exhausting and rewarding, but they go by so quickly. Before you know it, you too could be wondering which one will you go after first when they both bugger off at the same time in opposite directions!!!!!!

Our first family photograph